Tuesday, June 28, 2005

Gay Old Time in Canada

The Canadian Commons passed the same-sex marriage bill C-38 late Tuesday. The Senate will make this official later this week.

Canada thus joins Belgium and the Netherlands in permitting homosexual couples to marry. Spain should legalize this this year.

The final vote was 158 to 133, even with a couple of dozen defectors from the Liberal and NDP MPs.

All the wire services and papers are beginning coverage. A good overview is in Canoe.

With Conservatives still muttering that they want to overturn this if they get to form a government, the piece includes:

The Liberals said Harper has only one tool at his disposal: the Charter's notwithstanding clause, an escape hatch which no federal government has ever used.

"They're going to have to at least be honest with the people," said Justice Minister Irwin Cotler.

"They're going to have to acknowledge that they want to override the (Charter of Rights), override constitutional-law decisions in nine jurisdictions in this country, override a unanimous decision of the Supreme Court of Canada, override the rule of law in this country."